The Best Exercise Games for the Xbox Kinect

Welcome to XboxFitness.org! This is a site dedicated to providing the latest news and game reviews for Xbox Kinect games which can be effective for fitness and exercise. To get started and read the blog, just click here to go to our home page.

Years ago, no one would have believed you if you said that in the 21st century, people would be keeping in shape with video games in the comfort of their own homes. For most video games, the only body part that got any kind of workout was your thumbs.

I remember in the late 1990s when Dance Dance Revolution first came out in the arcades. Then, in the early 2000s, more interactive games like MoCap Boxing were introduced.

These games were interesting because actually ended up sweating with your heart pounding after playing. And yet you wanted more. Contrast that to spending 10 minutes on a boring elliptical or treadmill.

When the Wii was introduced, a lot of folks thought it was just a fad. But lo and behold, suddenly people who weren’t traditional “gamers” started to buy video game systems. Soon after that, a new word was invented: “exergaming”.

I’m someone who just doesn’t have the time nor an endless supply of money to go to the gym. And years ago, I bought myself an elliptical machine for a couple hundred dollars which I ended up using only about 10 times. Today it’s a very expensive coat rack (if anyone in the New York area would like to buy it cheap, let me know!) It just got so tedious running and running and getting nowhere. Even when I tried to put it in front of my TV, too often I ended up just leaning forward on the front panel to watch the show, as I couldn’t move my legs and concentrate on the TV at the same time.

And yet as the years went by, I got flabbier and flabbier. Like many Americans, I’m overweight and borderline obese. I have high blood pressure, and my doctor told me last week I have low HDL (“good cholesterol”), the only cure of which is more exercise.

And so Kinect Exercise Games are a great choice for me, and maybe for you too. The great thing about using video games for exercise is that unlike fitness videos, they’re not repetitious (at least the good ones aren’t). You play against a friend or against the computer in reaching a goal, so your mind is fixed on the goal, while your body is coming along for the ride.

Problem is, just like we saw for the Wii, we’ll be seeing a LOT of terrible games for the Kinect. Game companies can basically develop games in two ways: they can invest a lot of money into great creative minds, great technical developers, and great artists and sell a game for a premium. Or, they can pay the cheapest developers they can find and flood the market, knowing that uninformed people out there will buy games “just because” it say it’s for the Wii (or the Kinect).

Worse, game review sites like Amazon are filled with fake reviews, often paid for by the PR departments of those gaming companies. Even supposedly unbiased gaming sites and blogs are flooded with free copies and perks from game publishers, which makes it hard to always trust their veracity.

So my goal for starting this site is to make sure you have a truly unbiased opinion before you fork over your hard-earned money on a game. On this site, we’ll make sure every single game is played thoroughly, and we’ll provide an in-depth review.

If you have any requests for game reviews or other topics you’d like to see, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I hope you enjoy the site!

About this Blog

Welcome to XboxFitness.Org! Since 2011, this blog has been providing the latest news from around the industry on using the Xbox and Kinect for fitness and exercise, as well as objective, comprehensive reviews of the latest games that provide a great workout.

For those who doubt that video games can be used effectively in an exercise regimen, I've personally been able to lose 30 pounds through watching my diet and exercising regularly. If I can do it, you can do it too!

(Note that this site is not affiliated with the Microsoft service of the same name, launched in late 2013).

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